Handel's use of flute and recorder in opera and oratorio

Abstract

Handel uses flutes or recorders in 125 pieces in his operas and oratorios. Flutes appear most frequently in the keys of E minor and B minor, and the relative major keys of G major and D major, and recorders in the keys of F major, B♭ major, and the relative minor keys of D minor and G minor. Other keys are used primarily for special reasons, especially those related to the affections. Most pieces including flutes or recorders are pastoral songs, lovesongs, and laments. Flutes and recorders double other musical lines more than 50 percent of the times they appear in the operas, and in the oratorios, they double about 35 percent of the time. Flutes are independent of all other parts about 15 percent in the operas and 17 percent in the oratorios; recorders about 28 percent in the operas and 15 percent in the oratorios. In the remaining pieces, flutes and recorders alternate between independent use and doubling other parts. In all but a handfull of pieces Handel uses only alto recorders or transverse flutes in D. On rare occasions lie specifies a higher or lower member of the flute or recorder family.